Our First Interview in each U.S. State
Since 2016, The Outwords Archive (OUTWORDS) has traveled the United States recording on-camera oral history interviews with Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ elders. One day, Mason read a newspaper profile of Eric Jubler, a heterosexual attorney and LGBTQ+ ally who successfully argued a case before the Supreme Court against so-called decency laws preventing the distribution of LGBTQ+ content through the postal service. No attorney would take the case, and Eric felt an injustice was being perpetrated. Mason was inspired by the story, contacted Eric for an interview, and drove up to Eric's home in Carmel, California on January 21, 2015, in what became the first OUTWORDS interview.
Since then OUTWORDS has sent film crews to capture interviews in New York, Los Angeles, Florida, Minnesota, and other states with queer legends who let us into their homes. Many times, it was a scramble to find a diverse field of interviewees until days before the trip; if people weren’t available during the brief window, we didn’t get their interview.
In 2020, when the Covid pandemic brought in-person interviews to a standstill, the OUTWORDS team quickly pivoted to virtual interviews. At first we devised a way to capture high quality video recordings by using interviewees' own computers to record and store the footage, which we accessed via temporary remote control software. With the donation of several laptops, OUTWORDS started shipping recording kits to standardize the recording process.
Previously we only sent film crews to populous regions so the ability to ship camera kits to remote areas enabled us to capture many diverse interviews. Today OUTWORDS captures both in-person and virtual interviews, either by sending a film crew or shipping a camera kit.
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Women's Reproductive freedom activist
Slidell, LA
Susan Jane Allen was born in Detroit in 1948. Her parents, Leo and Helen Allen, both worked in the space industry. In 1962, the family...
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Two-spirit poet and educator
Lakewood, CO
Crisosto Apache was born in 1971 in New Mexico. His father is a member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe and his mother is part Mescalero...
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VETERAN & BISEXUAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Canton, MA
Cliff Arnesen was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1948. His father was an alcoholic merchant marine and longshoreman. His...
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pastor, HIV community activist
Charleston, SC
Robert Arrington was born February 1960 in Harlem, New York to. He grew up as one of three siblings with a strict father and a...
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Cherokee Nation Language Specialist
Jay, OK
Wade Blevins was born on January 9th, 1973, in Grove, Oklahoma (Cherokee Nation) where his family has resided since the 1840s. He was predominantly raised...
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Non-binary teacher and administrator
St. Louis, MO
Elaine Brune was born on June 30, 1955, in Kansas City, Missouri. Growing up in a tight-knit family and neighborhood, Elaine learned to value independence,...
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Bronze Star veteran, DADT challenger
Langley, WA
Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, commonly known as Grethe, was born on March 24, 1942 in Oslo, Norway. At age 9, she and her family immigrated to...
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Anne Charles and Linda Quinlan
writers; public access show co-hosts
Montpelier, VT
Anne Charles was born on May 14, 1951, in Houston, Texas. She was raised by her single mother in Buffalo, New York, and never knew...
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university dean, HIV educator
Newark, NJ
James Credle was born in 1945 in Mesic, a small town on North Carolina’s eastern shore. After graduating from the all-black Pamlico County Training School...
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Felipa DeLeon and Monique Mousseau
Two-Spirit Founders of Uniting Resilience
Box Elder, SD
Felipa De Leon (native name: Theíčihila Wi) was born on June 1st 1969 in Dowagiac, Michigan, and grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation....
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first openly transgender judge in U.S.
Houston, TX
At her birth in 1948, Phyllis Randolph Frye was named Phillip. Growing up in Texas, Phillip became an Eagle Scout and was the commander of...
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transgender women of color activist
Little Rock, AR
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy was born in the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois. Around age 13, she came out to her parents as transgender. After a psychologist,...
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‘gay gene’ geneticist, HIV researcher, filmmaker
Haleiwa, HI
Dean Hamer was born in 1951 in Montclair, New Jersey. He graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School....
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FOUNDER / CEO, AIDS ALABAMA
Birmingham, AL
Kathie Hiers was born on October 5th, 1954 in Mobile, Alabama. She might have been born in Joliet, Illinois, where her family lived at the...
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Co-founder, Southerners On New Ground (SONG)
Decatur, GA
Pat Hussain was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1950. She attended segregated schools though high school. In 1963, Pat attended a civil rights sit-in at...
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